The Times, They Are A-Changin'!

As we head into the fall and the beginning of the new program year, there are five very important changes in the life of this congregation that you need to know about!

1. Welcome (back) to the Rev. Fred Graham! We are delighted to be bringing Fred Graham on board as our Parish Associate. A Parish Associate is a retired minister of Word and Sacrament who enters into a contractual relationship with the Pastor and Session of a local congregation, with the approval of the presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. In our case, Fred will be providing us with periodic preaching, pastoral care for members and friends of the congregation when I am out of town or tight on time, weddings and funerals and baptisms upon request (subject to my approval), and we might even be able to persuade Fred to teach a class every now and then. Many of you remember Fred from his occasional service to the church over the past several decades, including a one-year stint as Interim Pastor during 1975-1976. We won’t see Fred every week (he has an ongoing relationship with Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Lansing), but we will see him pretty regularly in worship, at Wednesday night dinners, and in other activities in the life of this church. I am delighted to welcome him on board, partly because of the many gifts he brings to us, but also because it will be a huge relief to me to know that there is now built-in pastoral back-up for me during those times when I am away, ill, or just generally swamped. Many of you have expressed to me your interest to see this congregation grow both numerically and spiritually; having Fred on board will help make that possible, as it will be easier for me to engage in my primary responsibility here – namely, “to provide leadership that advances the spiritual development of the congregation.” Please join me in joyfully welcoming Fred to our staff!

2. Lori Pollitz’s new adventure: Lori, our Director of Christian Education, has been diligently listening for God’s voice speaking to her as she continues to grow in her walk of faith and her desire to share faith with others. In particular, Lori has felt God nudging her to apply to the Master of Divinity program at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and recently learned that she has been accepted. The Master of Divinity is the academic degree required of those called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, but can also be pursued by people who feel called to seminary but aren’t yet sure what the future will hold. (In my case, I felt a clear call to go to seminary years before I felt a clear call to ordained ministry!) This particular program at Western is a part-time distance learning program, which will take five years for Lori to complete (instead of the traditional three years full-time) and which she will engage in while she continues to fulfill her responsibilities here. Lori is not leaving! Her participation in this program will require periodic on-campus two-week intensive sessions; we are working out an arrangement with the Personnel Committee that will enable Lori to complete her requirements without causing hardship here. Over the course of the next five years (and beyond!), we will benefit immensely from the increased level of training and experience that Lori will be gaining. I would invite you to keep Lori in your prayers as she begins this remarkable adventure, and to rejoice with me in her willingness to follow God’s call.

3. Sandy Wright-Auge’s shift of responsibilities: Sandy, our Director of Music, has also been listening for God’s call in her life. Sandy has been feeling led to explore new opportunities for service in the life of this congregation, especially in the area of worship arts. As she begins to discern what that will look like in actual practice, she has asked to be relieved of her responsibilities for the children’s and youth music programs in this church, specifically the Good News Singers, the Elementary Handchimes, and the Middle School Ringers. You will continue to see Sandy behind the organ and the piano on Sunday mornings, and she will continue to engage in all the other responsibilities she has engaged in for the past thirteen years, including the supervision of all other musicians on staff. As I write these words, a search is underway to find a highly qualified candidate to fulfill the responsibilities that Sandy has carried with our children and youth, and we will let you know when those programs are ready to resume. I would ask for your prayers for that search process, that God will lead the right person to us, and us to the right person. I would also invite you to keep Sandy in your prayers as she continues to discern how God is calling her to use her gifts in this congregation here and now.

4. A new opportunity for spiritual growth: I will be teaching a class this fall that is designed to help people discover their God-given gifts and talents and to consider ways in which those gifts and talents may be put to fruitful use. The basic idea is that God has given each member of the body of Christ a few spiritual gifts that are to be used for the building up of the church (see Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; and Ephesians 4). Every single one of us has been gifted by God with certain abilities that are intended to benefit other people! Some people may have a gift for artistic creativity while others have a gift for craftsmanship; some may have a gift for hospitality while others have a gift for counseling; some may have a gift for teaching while others have a gift for leadership; some may have a gift for organization while others may have a gift for evangelism. Many people do not know what their own gifts are – according to one survey of 1200 Christians, only 20% indicated that they knew what their spiritual gifts were and used them. The class I will be teaching is intended to help you discern the gifts that God has given you through Bible study, prayer, conversation, and a survey instrument that you and two people who know you very well will complete. You will likely discover gifts that intuitively make sense to you, and you will also probably discover some “latent” or “hidden” gifts within you that you didn’t know you had which you might want to begin exploring. This class will be open to any interested participants (you don’t have to be a member of the church) and any age from senior high to senior citizen. The class will begin in mid-September, will run for eight or ten sessions, and – this is important! – identical sessions will be offered several different times throughout the week, to facilitate the maximum possible participation by members and friends of the congregation. Some of you may have explored your spiritual gifts using another curriculum at some point; even if you have done something like that in the past, I would encourage you to participate in this class. The curriculum we will be using is designed to be mutually beneficial to you as individuals and to us as a whole community of faith; not only will you gain a better understanding of your own God-given gifts, but I and other leaders will also gain a greater ability to offer you opportunities to serve in the life of the church in ways that truly match your areas of giftedness, that you are likely to find particularly meaningful and fulfilling, and that will be rewarding to other people. (Once upon a time, I signed up to do something in a church setting and reasonably quickly realized that I had made a mistake – I was not gifted for that task, and I was discouraged and frustrated and had to find a graceful way to step out of that responsibility. Maybe some of you have had a similar experience. If everyone serves in ways that mesh with their God-given gifts, everybody benefits and everybody wins!) Participants will be asked to purchase a workbook that costs $6.50 per copy; a couple copies will also be available in the church library. A calendar showing the full schedule will be available in early September. I would encourage everybody to take advantage of this unique opportunity; I truly would like to encourage every member of the church to participate in what promises to be an exciting opportunity for self-discovery and spiritual growth.

5. A new title for this newsletter: For the past few decades, this newsletter has gone by the name Parish Pages. That name was contributed by Mary Schrock’s mother, Dorothy Fink , way back during the tenure of the Rev. Charlie Herrick (who left twenty years ago, after serving as Pastor for thirteen years). It was a good name and was appropriate for that era in the life of the church; that name, like Dorothy herself, had a good, full, fruitful life. Now, it’s time for a change. As we celebrate this congregation’s sesquicentennial anniversary, as we both look backward with celebration and forward with anticipation, we are giving this newsletter a new name: The Cornerstone. Why that name? Two reasons, really. First: This church is a stone church sitting on the corner of the courthouse square. Second: the name will be a constant reminder to us of why this congregation exists, and whom we are called to serve. That word “cornerstone” is a metaphor that is used to refer to Jesus several times in the New Testament. Jesus Christ is “a cornerstone chosen and precious” (1 Peter 2:6); he is the “stone that the builders [i.e., the religious and political leaders of his day] rejected” which “has become the cornerstone” (Matthew 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11); he is the “cornerstone” of the “household of God” which has been “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” and of which we ourselves are members (Ephesians 2:19-20). It is a fitting name for our newsletter. Special thanks are due to Mary Schrock for helpful background information about the previous name and for giving her blessing to proceed, to the Parish Life Committee and the Session for supporting this change, and to Sandy Clark for creating a new graphic design for the newsletter’s masthead. May the name The Cornerstone be a constant reminder to us over the years to come of why we are here, and whom we are called to serve.

Peace and blessings!

Rev. Bill Pinches
Pastor